Harris enjoys sensational debut for Stars

Chris Harris made a sensational debut for King’s Lynn with a six-ride paid maximum in a 53-37 Knockout Cup win over his former club Oxford.The PSH Environmental Stars built up a 16-point advantage in the first six races at the Adrian Flux Arena to put themselves in a strong position ahead of Thursday’s second leg at Cowley.But nobody could stop Harris, who raced to 17 paid 18 with some trademark passing moves along the way, concluding with a dramatic effort to get the better of Oxford duo Maciej Janowski and Rohan Tungate in Heat 15.Stars manager Rob Lyon said: “It was as good as it could get. Oxford are a decent side, and although we would have been majorly disappointed not to pull a win, I think 16 points is a healthy lead and its ours to lose now.“Bomber was in tremendous form and I think that’s one of the best performances he’s had around King’s Lynn if I’m brutally honest. He was the match-winner for us, he got us over the line and he was absolutely superb so hats off to him.“This team is built on solid all-round performance, and we had one or two boys off tonight and we still won by 16. I think that shows how solid it is, and the potential we have is promising.”There was no doubt Lynn caught the Spires cold in the early stages, as each of the first six races resulted in home heat advantages. New No.1 Ben Cook took the flag in Heat 1 with Jan Kvech retrieving third place from Tungate, before an excellent start from new Rising Star Ashton Boughen saw him take the reserves’ race with Harris making his way through the traffic for second. Danish duo Nicolai Klindt and Niels-Kristian Iversen recorded Lynn’s second 5-1 in Heat 3, and three successive 4-2s followed with wins for Richard Lawson, Iversen and Kvech – the latter showing his speed to get the better of Janowski on the opening lap of Heat 6.That put the Stars into a huge 26-10 lead, but Oxford had some respite when Lawson suffered a chain breakage at the start of Heat 7 – although Harris stormed around Charles Wright and Erik Riss at the end of the opening lap to share the race.Peter Kildemand split Kvech and Boughen in Heat 8 although Lynn still took a 4-2, before the Spires took their only big result of the night, Latvian racer Francis Gusts joining Janowski for a surprise 5-1 over Iversen and Klindt in Heat 9. Two shared races followed, both won by Stars riders as Kvech took the honours for a third straight win in Heat 10, whilst the flying Harris quickly cleared Kildemand and Tungate for his third unbeaten ride in Heat 11.A trading of 4-2s then followed with Harris passing Gusts to win Heat 12 as Klindt took third place, but the Spires hit back with a 4-2 in Heat 13 as Tungate took a victory and Janowski snatched third place from Cook off the final bend. Harris produced a repeat performance to get the better of Gusts in Heat 14 with Iversen in third to extend the margin back to 16 points, and just when the Spires looked set to trim it to 12 in Heat 15, Harris was there again with the heroics to slice between the visitors’ pairing.King’s Lynn 53: Chris Harris 17+1, Jan Kvech 10, Niels-Kristian Iversen 7+1, Nicolai Klindt 5, Richard Lawson 5, Ashton Boughen 5, Ben Cook 4.Oxford 37: Maciej Janowski 10, Rohan Tungate 7+2, Francis Gusts 7+1, Peter Kildemand 6, Charles Wright 5, Erik Riss 3+2, Luke Killeen 0.